FC Dallas Tickets
As one of the charter members of the MLS, FC Dallas have amassed the model for consistency; however, have been unable to garner an MLS Cup. The team was originally created as the Dallas Burn, and was changed to FC Dallas in 2005. At the team’s conception, they played at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas, Texas from 1996 to 2002. In an effort to save money, the team moved from the Cotton Bowl to Dragon Stadium in Southlake, Texas. Dragon Stadium is a high school stadium in Southlake, a suburb of Fort Worth. After a year at Dragon Stadium, the team moved back to the Cotton Bowl for a year before moving into their own, soccer-specific stadium now called FC Dallas Stadium. FC Dallas Stadium holds more than 20,000 people and is located in Frisco, a northern suburb of Dallas.
In the teams’ early years, they reached the playoffs seven years in a row. In this stretch of consistency which saw them make the conference finals two out of their first four years, they were not drawing particularly well. In 1997, they won the US Open Cup, the team’s only major trophy thus far. Since changing names from the Dallas Burn to FC Dallas, the team has made the playoffs every year but two, making it to the MLS Cup finals in 2010 and the US Open Cup finals in 2007; failing to capitalize in both of those situations.
FC Dallas originally had a fierce rivalry with the Chicago Fire, annually competing for the Brimstone Cup; however, due to the realignment of the leagues, this rivalry has gone away for the most part. In 2005, when the San Jose Earthquakes became the Houston Dynamo, a geographic rivalry has formed, as the two sides play for El Capitan, a cannon that goes to the victor of the regular season head-to-head matchups. FC Dallas has also formed a rivalry with the Colorado Rapids due to their frequent meetings in the playoffs.
The team, while they don’t draw particularly well, have a series of dedicated groups of supporters, known as FCD Nation, and the Inferno, who take their name from when the team was known as the Dallas Burn. In 2011, the team finished in fourth place overall, earning them a spot in the play-in round of the MLS Cup. The team also featured standout goalkeeper Kevin Hartman who led the league in shutouts with 13 and notched a 1.06 goals against average, good for third in the league.
